Google Alleges That Viacom ‘Secretly Uploaded Its Content to YouTube, Even While Publicly Complaining About Its Presence There’ Daring Fireball (2010-03-25). “For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its contentto YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site.” You could read this as a story about the hypocrisy and unmitigated gall of the copyright monopolists. I prefer to read it as a story about how a flourishing countereconomy gives even the aggressive sort of ideological statists a positive incentive to work towards promoting the free world in practice. Not even a massive copyright monopolist like Viacom can afford to abstain from the anti-copyright countereconomy. Not because they agree with it politically, but for reasons of business, pure and simple. (Linked Thursday 2010-03-25.)

Consistency. John Markley, The Superfluous Man (2010-03-10). One of the stories that been in the news is the DUI arrest of California State Senator Roy Ashburn, a consistent opponent of gay marriage, as he departed a gay bar with a male companion. Ashburn has subsequently acknowledged in the media that he’s gay, saying that he votes as…(Linked Thursday 2010-03-25.)